Love, Hope, Desire, and Fear

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And many there were hurt by that strong boy,His name, they said, was Pleasure,And near him stood, glorious beyond measureFour Ladies who possess all empery5In earth and air and sea,Nothing that lives from their award is free.Their names will I declare to thee,Love, Hope, Desire, and Fear,And they the regents are10Of the four elements that frame the heart,And each diversely exercised her artBy force or circumstance or sleightTo prove her dreadful mightUpon that poor domain.15Desire presented her glass, and thenThe spirit dwelling thereWas spellbound to embrace what seemed so fairWithin that magic mirror,And dazed by that bright error,20It would have scorned the of the avengerAnd death, and penitence, and danger,Had not then silent FearTouched with her palsying spear,So that as if a frozen torrent25The blood was curdled in its current;It dared not speak, even in look or motion,But chained within itself its proud devotion.Between Desire and Fear thou wertA wretched thing, poor heart!30Sad was his life who bore thee in his breast,Wild bird for that weak nest.Till Love even from fierce Desire it bought,And from the very wound of tender thoughtDrew solace, and the pity of sweet eyes35Gave strength to bear those gentle agonies,Surmount the loss, the terror, and the sorrow.Then Hope approached, she who can borrowFor poor to-day, from rich tomorrow,And Fear withdrew, as night when day40Descends upon the orient ray,And after long and vain enduranceThe poor heart woke to her assurance.--At one birth these four were bornWith the world's forgotten morn,45And from Pleasure still they holdAll it circles, as of old.When, as summer lures the swallow,Pleasure lures the heart to follow--O weak heart of little wit!50The fair hand that wounded it,Seeking, like a panting hare,Refuge in the lynx's lair,Love, Desire, Hope, and Fear,Ever will be near.55